Anxiety is a waste of time.

You have time. And you have space. And your daily task is to fill the time and the space with things. ‘Things” could be be thoughts: food: experiences: people – and doing things has consequences.

Those consequences could be comfort, ease, growth, joy, contentment.

Anxiety is the thief of these happy consequences. Anxiety causes you to think the worst: to over plan: over worry: fix things before they go wrong: do more than you need to: interfere: overwork. Wherever your anxiety stems from, the first thing to do is to recognise it. Listen out for the voice of worry and when it comes, remember that thinking is something that is under your control. For most of us, with practice, it really is. Thank goodness.

And practice. Be prepared to change a worried thought for a more optimistic one (and at first notice how anxious you become when you try to let go of worry). It’s as though as long as you don’t imagine the best, you will never be disappointed. It’s as if your anxiety and care are keeping those you love protected. If you didn’t worry about them, who would?

So develop a new voice in your head. One that gently gives you something else to focus on when anxiety arrives to steal your joy, your time and your dreams. You can also be

Choice isn’t as easy otherwise anxiety would never happen.

gentle with anxiety, but be clear that it’s not the only voice you’ll give time and space to.

When anxious thoughts jostle for top priority in my head, I say to myself: “I must be feeling scared about something, I wonder what I’m scared about because I look around me, there is nothing to frighten me at all. These thoughts are my own creation. I’d better find something nicer to think”. Or words to that effect. It soothes me. And then my anxiety levels fall leaving me feeling sweeter.